After a couple of pots fizzled out on the flop (one going to Johansson, one to Kara Scott) a bigger one grew between preflop raiser Andrew Pantling and Atanas Gueorguiev. The latter had limped on the small blind and then called Pantling's 50,000 raise.
Both players checked the flop, but Gueorguiev bet 85,000 on the turn. Pantling called. The river brought the . Gueorguiev checked, Pantling bet 56,000, Gueorguiev quickly raised to 215,000. Pantling made the call -- only to find the Bulgarian on a set of fives which took down the pot. Pantling is on the decline, it looks like, for the first time in three days.
Andrew Pantling: 1,989,000
Kara Scott: 1,996,000
Christer Johansson: 1,407,000
Atanas Gueorguiev: 1,626,000
Kara Scott leads at the moment, but there's not much in it. We could see the pace slow a little when they get back -- unless, of course, some sort of deal is struck.
Englishman Lee Brooke-Pearce now had little option but to get the rest of his chips in and hope to double through back into the game; he did so with . Andrew Pantling gave him a spin with his and even before his live cards had their go at beating Pantling, Brooke-Pearce was out of his seat, raising his sunglasses, undoing his microphone.
By the time the hit on the turn, Brooke-Pearce was drawing dead and now four-handed, the remaining players are off on a 20-minute break.
Atanas Gueorguiev raises under the gun... it passes all the way to William Kassouf in the small blind, who thinks, still as a statue, and then announces "All in". Gueorguiev calls much more rapidly with -- Kassouf with the has just run into a pretty cool spot there.
The board runs out , upping Gueorguiev's stack into what is probably the new chip lead (although it's all evening out here on the final), while Kassouf exits to a round of applause.
Lee Brooke-Pearce raised in the cutoff, and after the customary pause, William Kassouf called.
Flop:
Check, check.
Turn:
Kassouf checked, and Brooke-Pearce bet 100,000. Surprisingly quickly, Kassouf passed. Brooke-Pearce's one-woman support section at the rail went crazy.
Andrew Pantling, cruising in fifth gear, raises to 70,000 on the button, winning the blinds, then gives it another go in the cutoff. This time button Kara Scott reraises to 175,000. Back to Pantling, who quickly announces "All in", putting the same pressure on her as he was doing to other short stacks through yesterday's latter stages.
She doesn't pass, however. She thinks for a long time, fingers laced, and chats, smiling, with Pantling. Whatever she gleans from this interaction (wish I could hear what she was saying) she makes a decision: call.
Kara shows , in great shape against Pantling's . The flop is met with hush from the crowd, but a round of applause greets the turn, giving Scott trips and leaving Pantling drawing dead. Over 1,500,000 for her now.
We've been playing flop-free poker for a little while now.
William Kassouf raised, but folded to a reraise from an impassive Atanas Gueorguiev in the big blind.
Andrew Pantling raised under the gun and it was enough to frighten everyone else off.
The next hand it was Christer Johansson's turn to raise, but Pantling made it a hefty 275,000 to go, and after a moment spent counting his chips and eying up his apparently unconcerned opponent, Johansson folded.